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]]>1786Financial advertising, marketing and sales without the 56% google inefficiency.http://money.ca/me_and_my_money/2014/12/07/financial-advertising-marketing-and-sales-without-the-56-google-inefficiency/
Sun, 07 Dec 2014 20:05:23 +0000http://money.ca/me_and_my_money/?p=1777Google admits that advertisers wasted their money on more than half of internet ads

Online advertising is a fickle thing. It accounts for 20% of the ad industry’s total spending, and over 90% of revenue for the internet giants Google and Facebook. That said, no one seems to have any idea whether it actually works.

That uncertainty reached a new high this week, as Google announced that 56.1% of ads served on the internet are never even “in view”—defined as being on screen for one second or more. That’s a huge number of “impressions” that cost money for advertisers, but are as pointless as a television playing to an empty room.

This is not a big revelation. The web metrics company ComScore reported last year that 46% of online ads are never seen. Spider.io, an ad fraud company acquired by Google in February, has pointed out that a large portion of ads are “viewed” only by robots, revealing that one botnet of 120,000 virus-infected computers viewed ads billions of times, running up the tab for advertisers without offering them the human eyeballs they sought.

Still, the acknowledgement by a heavyweight such as Google that ad viewability is a problem could shake up the industry by delaying possible IPOs of ad companies and requiring new ways for advertisers to gauge the effectiveness of their ads.

The nineteenth-century retailer John Wanamaker famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don’t know which half.” In this case, it’s the obviously the half that pays for ads which are never seen, and now advertisers are looking for new tools to figure out which those are.

It’s worth noting that Google made this acknowledgement of the deficiency of the model it has profited richly from while also offering a new model to advertisers: In July it introduced its Active View product, which measures only viewed ads.

]]>1777The Mortgage Killer – NPA and the big banks Secrets Revealedhttp://money.ca/me_and_my_money/2013/11/16/the-mortgage-killer-npa-and-the-big-banks-secrets-revealed/
Sat, 16 Nov 2013 07:16:24 +0000http://money.ca/me_and_my_money/?p=1682NPA a bargaining chip with big banks that helps a great number of average Canadians in many ways.

By:Jaoquin Benitez – Learn more tips, tricks and techniques that make, save or preserve more of your money.

www.themortgagekiller.ca

Perhaps you will be shocked to find out the banks’ worst kept secret, or perhaps it is something that you already knew, but never recognized as a valuable piece of information.

Lending institutions protect themselves by securing the loan with the property that they are financing. This gives the moneylender some assurance that the property owner will pay back the borrowed money on time as specified in the original mortgage agreement and as long as you keep making your mortgage payments, everybody lives happily ever after.

However, if the homeowner begins to fall behind on mortgage payments, the dream of owning a home could become your worst nightmare, not only for you but also for the lending institution.

What is the secret that the bank does not want you to know? The bank does not want to take away your home! I know it sounds absurd, but by the time you finish reading this article you will be persuaded that it is an accurate statement. Allow me to go a step further; the very last thing that the bank wants to do is foreclose on your property. It will become an extra expense that they don’t need to incur and it will cost them thousands of dollars to take a property through the foreclosure process. Now you may be asking yourself: If that’s true, why are they threatening me with foreclosing my property? What do they really want?

There is a simple answer: the bank collection agent wants to scare you into making up the late mortgage payments, and by doing so, ensure you will continue to make your payments on a regular basis until the end of the term as specified in the mortgage agreement. The threat of foreclosure is the only tool that the bank has at its disposal to persuade you to make the mortgage payments.

Furthermore, once the bank initiates the foreclosure process, the laws regulating the banking industry require them to report that property as a non-performing asset. Doing this will hinder the bank’s capacity to borrow more money and will affect its overall credit rating. The bank must try to avoid having to report a non-performing asset on its books at all cost. In many cases, banks intentionally delay initiating a foreclosure proceeding for up to six months, and sometimes even up to a full year, to avoid reporting the property as a non-performing asset.

The ‘non-performing asset’ problem or the NPA, as it is commonly known in the banking and financial industry, affects the banks in more ways than you and I may care to know. These three simple letters strike terror in the banking sector and business circles. The dreaded NPA rule simply states that: “When interest on a loan or any other monies is due to a bank and it remains unpaid for more than 90 days, the entire bank loan automatically becomes a non-performing asset.” They will go to great lengths to avoid having to report a property as a non-performing asset.

Why would three simple letters, “NPA,” cause such terror to a financial institution?

There are a number of problems that will arise from having too many NPAs on the bank’s books. The biggest problem is that the bank must have a certain amount of dollars in cash reserves. If their levels of non-performing assets become too high, they will have to put more cash into their reserve account to compensate for these non-performing assets. This means they now have less money to lend. In addition, they now have to deal with a house that they don’t want because it will become a money pit. Furthermore, they will not be able to make a profit on it because of the way mortgages are structured.

In their quest to maximize their profits, banks structure mortgages in a way that they are paid the majority of the interest up front or at the beginning of the loan term. This is called a front-loaded mortgage, and most mortgages are structured in the same way. This means that in the early years of your mortgage you have not built much equity in the house because the majority of your mortgage payment was slotted to pay for the interest on the loan.

Often banks find that their asset (your house) is worth less than what they lent out, and once the bank takes ownership of your property, they not only have an administrative and legal nightmare, but they are about to take a financial bath!

Even though I am not a bank advocate, I am certain that if you were in the bank’s situation, you would be forced to do the exact same thing. The bank does not have any other recourse. The only legal recourse available to them is foreclosure in order to try to minimize some of their losses. However, that is their very last option.

Can you see the predicament that lending institutions find themselves in? On the one hand, they are losing money by not receiving your mortgage payment and on the other hand, they can’t really afford to foreclose on you because of the negative consequences this will bring them.

While this is an admittedly simplified explanation of how financial institutions operate, the bottom line is that banks are in the “money buying and selling business.” To put it in clear and simple terms, the bank’s profit is generated by the spread created between the interest rate that they pay you on your money and the interest rates that they charge on the money that they lend out. The bank pockets the difference. For the bank to make any money, it must lend out the funds in its possession, or find some sort of investment vehicle that will guarantee a rate of return greater than its cost of borrowing.

Consider the main motivating factor for a bank to be in business. It is not to provide a service to the general public; they are in business to make money. In a foreclosure case, they will most likely lose money. As the old saying goes, “the best way to make money is to stop losing money.” Having the knowledge of how lending institutions operate is empowering. Since you now know that lenders don’t want to foreclose on your property — and you don’t want them to foreclose on you — you have common ground to work out an agreement that will stop the foreclosure process and satisfy both of your needs. Remember: The bank does not want to foreclose your property.

OWNERSHIP. Use this as your “mantra” for 2013 and you can experience a new way of living.

I am not talking about purchasing a new vehicle or a new home; I am talking about taking ownership of your personal finances.

What are your limiting beliefs or roadblocks preventing you from honestly embracing your finances?

Why are you highly successful in your work, but are unable to move forward to becoming debt free?

If you managed your business in the same manner that you manage your personal finances, would you be bankrupt?

Our values around money are well established by the time we are teenagers. Our parents views and experiences around money shape our beliefs and attitudes towards money as well. Our values around money play an important role in how we currently deal with our finances.

So what are the roadblocks and patterns that are entrenched as adults causing us financial stress?

Fear: When I sit down with clients for the first time there is always a hesitation and curiosity as we begin the process of reviewing all their financial information. We discuss the details of paystubs, Credit Card interest rates, even money owed to the Cash Store. When was the last time you took a clear look at your entire financial picture? To review everything you owe and to see exactly what you have saved for the future is a very powerful and enlightening first step. Let’s call it a balance sheet for your personal finances. Fear is stopping many people from taking this first step. Fear that once you are aware you will need to hold yourself accountable and will need to make changes and sacrifices. It is much easier to live in the land of Avoidance.

Avoidance: How are you avoiding dealing with your finances? Are youwriting post-dated cheques, taking a passive role in your finances, avoiding the government, overspending repeatedly at Christmas, buying “big ticket” items you can’t afford? Review your last five years of spending and you will see the patterns emerge. Are you setting yourself up for failure, by repeating patterns that you truly know are not helpful?

Money is one of those great relationship tests: it can be stressful talking about it and people may feel defensive. Are you delaying discussing your finances with your spouse out of fear or because you think it is easier to avoid?

Take Ownership! Develop a healthy financial plan with your spouse that is respectful of each person’s values around money. Make it realistic both of you are right, now find a compromise. Have a budget/plan in place that allows both of you to take responsibility and both of you to win.

Let 2013 be a new and successful financial year for you! It’s Simple: Take Ownership

As young children we learn to avoid, it is human nature. My two daughters try every day it seems to avoid certain chores, or tasks. Take homework for example: children need to learn how to use a day planner and how to break down the large assignments into small achievable daily tasks. Avoiding the project or task until the final hours before it is due, increases stress levels and the final copy is of poor quality. Yes we all know this FACT by the time we are adults!

However, avoidance is the first behaviour that I focus on when dealing with families and their budgets. The first question I will ask is where is your mail? You would be amazed at the “unique” filling systems or lack of that I have seen! There are some people who bring down boxes (covered in dust), or some cute small file organizers, but most cannot bring me their mail or bills. Why, because the mail is filed throughout the house. One of my customers used behind there fridge as a filing system. Talk about avoidance. Once the mail has been tracked down it is very easy to see who has the mastered the skill of Avoidance. I have seen over an entire year’s worth of mail in one box and not one single envelope had been opened. Yes there was mail from the “tax man” and all the regular monthly bills X twelve. What if there was a winning lotto tickets in there?

Now going beyond opening your mail, my second question is, “How many bank accounts to you have?” For my customers who are reading this, I know you are smirking. This is my favorite question. Some people have one or two accounts, but many however have five, six, or more. Some people opt in favour of having bank accounts with overdraft protection attached with limits of up to $5000. In addition there are Line of Credits accounts, Savings and Chequings. Now the game of avoidance in this example is how to avoid knowing what living within your means is. This is accomplished by making your financial life so complicated transferring money from one overdraft account into the line of credit then back into the main account in a never ending cycle. This is what I refer to as pretend money! You have worked hard all week, and it is finally payday! Your cheque is automatically deposited into your account. But wait your balance is still in the negative. Hmmm, to avoid costly overdraft fees you transfer money from your line of credit because this payment is only 3% of the entire balance, and then your proceed to live off the credit card for all your daily expenses because there is a delay of two to four weeks depending on when your due dates are. Now times this behaviour by two, as both the husband and wife are transferring money from account to account and now you are immersed in a cycle of debt.

If this is you, please stop the avoidance it is time to simplify!

Stop the Overdraft protection or at least limit the amount to $500.

Have one main account and one or two Savings accounts no more.

Do NOT use your Credit Card or Line of Credit unless you have already earned the money you are charging to it.

Do not count on a paycheque that has yet to be earned.

Please open your mail!

Take ownership of your finances and your life.

Laurie Lee

Goodcents Co.

]]>1490“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”http://money.ca/me_and_my_money/2012/11/09/neither-a-borrower-nor-a-lender-be/
Fri, 09 Nov 2012 21:34:41 +0000http://www.money.ca/me_and_my_money/?p=1443Not exactly a new quote but one that seems to have stood the test of time – in some respects anyway. For whatever reasons, most “westernised” societies (and most other societies for that matter) have come to regard debt as some measure of success. I know I date myself but I remember an old Andy Capp cartoon (from England) – and he says “If you owe 5 pounds you are a failure, if you owe 5,000 pounds you are a success, if you owe 50,000 pounds you are a business-man and if you owe 500,000 pounds you are a government. I’m on my way!” Keep in mind Andy was always on the dole, owed everybody money and he was toasting himself in a Pub with a beer purchased by someone else! Keeping in mind this was a cartoon from the 1960s, if you extrapolate to today, it may still be a valid statement.

If debt is a measure of success as Andy states, then I guess most people in Canada are successful – but at what price? Cy N. Peace quoted from 1957: “Modern man is one who drives a mortgaged car over a bond financed highway on credit card gas!” How true for most of us – at one time in our lives or another. But is this the best way to live? Just a question, not making any judgements on anyone – I have debt too, and I have been in deep debt many, many years ago.

At the ripe old age of 22, I had fallen prey to the “you have been approved” letters in my mail and ended up with 62 – yes sixty-two – different credit cards and owed more than $25,000 in total. At that time, I was earning the princely sum of $451.00 per MONTH before deductions and of course had rent, food, dating and other expenses – not a pretty sight but I found a very trusting banker who helped me re-arrange things and I paid it all off at 100 cents on the dollar – no settlements, discounts or waived interest. Boy did it HURT!!!

I never went to parents or relatives for loans – I had seen in my own family that those situations just never turned out well – for anyone. The family dynamic is broken irreparably in most cases and bitter feelings abound along with jealousy and a varying sense of future entitlement – usually around the time a parent passes away. However, I am a cynic and I know that would never happen to anyone else or their family!

“The man who won’t loan money isn’t going to have many friends – or need them.” a quote from the great basketball player Wilt Chamberlain. A very interesting perspective I admit and not that far off-base – big-time when loans aren’t properly documented – particularly if they are from family. In real estate, the philosophy is “location, location, location” – in financial matters it is always “document, document, document”. This means everything – dates, pay-back date, interest rates, periodic payments and consequences of default – and then stick to them. Regardless of the fact the people may be relatives or friends, treat the entire transaction as a business agreement and handle it in exactly the same manner as any lending institution. Nothing more and nothing less. Verbal agreements are not worth the paper on which they are printed.

Sign on bank: “We can loan you enough money to get you completely out of debt.” I don’t know which bank but I have no choice but to laugh – some people actually believe it too – unfortunately.

New sources of financing for businesses and entrepreneurs are now reality including “crowdsourcing” – being done these days predominantly over the internet and most appear to be scams regrettably. The concept is fine – many small loans from many people, but what is the risk? Where is your protection? Remember caveat emptor – let the buyer (lender) beware!